A tragic life ends at the hands of a monster

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Margaret Maher was killed by a man with a history of violence against women, writes Peter Gregory.

It is an awful way to see the end of a life.

A woman lies on her side in long grass by the side of the road. Her body has been dumped near discarded computer parts. Her black leggings have been rolled down over her thighs, exposing her buttocks.

The crime scene video shows a piece of cardboard covering her stomach. Her purple track top and sweatshirt are bunched under her left armpit, revealing the scar which shows where her killer cut off her left breast.

When police examined 40-year-old Margaret Maher's face, they found a cut over her right eye and clear bruising that extended to her nose. She was hit hard, probably stopping her resistance before neck compression killed her on the night of October 3, 1997.

Some time after death, her breast was severed and placed in her mouth, a final insult to a woman who was dumped with rubbish in a back road at Somerton.

Many knew Margaret Maher was a prostitute. Neighbours saw the men turn up at all hours to her neat, one-bedroom flat in Campbellfield. Staff at nearby truck stops, shopkeepers, the pharmacist who supplied her methadone - to keep her off heroin - were all aware of her job.

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She needed the money to maintain her drug habit. She took amphetamines as heart starters and sedatives like others might swallow vitamin C tablets.

Retailer Gloria Nakad sometimes chatted with Ms Maher at her Pascoe Vale clothing shop. She gave evidence Margaret claimed to be mixing her own drug cocktails so she could reach the high her methadone program could not produce.

Ms Nakad said bruises were often visible on Ms Maher's arms and legs, even on her neck.

About two weeks before her death, Ms Maher paid $5 off a dress lay-by. She had $300 in her wallet, but she was too afraid to use that for the dress. It was to pay a drug debt.

Drugs were not Ms Maher's only health problem. She had a chronic coronary condition - partly resulting from her poor diet - that could have ended her life at any time.

But the shopkeepers and health professionals, aside from one occasion in September 1997 when Ms Nakad saw her spaced out and dishevelled, consistently remarked about the same old Margaret.

She loved to linger at the newsagent in Gaffney Street, Pascoe Vale, or the service station in nearby Craigieburn. She would wander for hours in the big Safeway at Broadmeadows, eventually leaving most of her selected goods at the checkout counter. On the night she died she bought some potpourri and other items and left the store shortly after midnight.

According to a jury verdict yesterday, Margaret Maher ran into something far more dangerous than drugs or clients or fatty food that night. She ran into Peter Dupas.

In October 1997, Dupas was living in Coane Street, Pascoe Vale, about five blocks from the Gaffney Street shops.

He had been out of jail just over a year and was no longer under unofficial supervision

Since the age of 15, Dupas had sought women as the victims of his crimes. One rape took place at a beach near the site of an unsolved murder. The woman killed was left naked under her towel.

The violence had started in 1968. Wearing his school uniform, Dupas went to the house of a young mother in his neighbourhood and asked to borrow a knife.

He began slashing his neighbour, and tried to stab her. When he finally stopped, he began to cry. Later, he told police he could not help himself and did not know why he was trying to kill the woman. He was put on probation and given psychiatric treatment.

Then, in 1973, Dupas began a history of offending described by one judge as "breathtaking".

He was sentenced to nine years' jail, with a five-year minimum, for offences committed on women in their homes. After knocking on the door, he would pretend to have car trouble and ask to borrow a screwdriver. Dupas raped one woman after threatening to harm her baby with a knife.

About two months after being released from prison in 1979, he molested women in four attacks over 10 days. He received a five-year minimum for those offences.

A report added to his file in September 1980 stated: "There is little that can be said in Dupas' favour. He remains an extremely disturbed, immature and dangerous man. His release on parole was a mistake."

Dupas was free again in February 1985. In March, he raped a 21-year-old woman who was sunbaking at Rye ocean beach. According to one newspaper report, he gave police a speech of remorse.

"I'm sorry for what happened," he said. "Everyone was telling me I'm OK now. I never thought it was going to happen again. I only wanted to live a normal life."

He was jailed for 12 years, with a 10-year minimum. He married while in prison in 1987 and was released in 1992.

Less than two years later, he held a woman at knifepoint in a toilet block at Lake Eppalock. He was hooded and had a roll of insulation tape and metal handcuffs in his pocket.

He pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and received a minimum of two years and nine months in jail. He and his wife separated.

Dupas was released again in September 1996 and moved to the house in Coane Street, Pascoe Vale.